Ladies, we get so many of you in our office complaining about getting nail fungus from your nail salon. Dr. Farajian always recommends that you get a medical pedicure instead of a salon pedicure, whenever possible.

The basins are themselves full of bacteria even after the sterilization due to the drain pipes, which can’t be cleaned. If there are no pipes, then there’s bigger danger of getting fungus from the nail polish itself. It gets dipped and re-dipped, transferring fungus from one person to another, causing a lot of embarrassment and a lot of extra expense. Nail fungus is notoriously hard to get rid of so do be careful out there.

Take your own polish every time, and make sure your feet aren’t exposed to wet, warm places where bacteria can thrive.

Also, if you already have nail fungus, or don’t want to get it, you can purchase a “ultraviolet shoe sanitizer” at our office, or through Amazon.com, and regularly sanitize all your shoes. There’s no use in treating toenail fungus while you keep putting your feet in shoes where the fungus is alive and well.

We offer prescription-strength topical ointments that are dispensed only at a podiatrist office. If your nails have become thick from the fungus, we have gels that can reduce the thickness so that later, the anti-fungal ointments can penetrate the nail and deliver the drug. We also have Pinpointe Laser for those of you who can’t wait to have your nails looking great again.